Enterprise content delivery network having a central controller for coordinating a set of content servers

Abstract

An enterprise content delivery network includes two basic components: a set of content servers, and a central controller for providing coordination and control of the content servers. The central controller coordinates the set of distributed servers into a unified system, for example, by providing provisioning, content control, request mapping, monitoring and reporting. Content requests may be mapped to optimal content servers by DNS-based mapping, or by using a policy engine that takes into consideration such factors as the location of a requesting client machine, the content being requested, asynchronous data from periodic measurements of an enterprise network and state of the streaming media servers, and given capacity reservations on the enterprise links. An ECDN provisioned with the basic components facilitates various customer applications, such as one or more of the following: live, corporate, streaming media (internal and Internet sources) and HTTP content delivery.

1 . A controller for use in an enterprise environment, in conjunction with a set of content servers, comprising: 
 first code executable in a processor to perform a given suite of tests selected from a set of tests that include a test for liveness of a given content server, a test for existence of a given communication link to a given content server, a test regarding health of a given content server, a test on quality of a given data stream deliverable from a given content server, and a test regarding a given state of the controller;    a database for storing configuration data, and data generated from the given suite of tests; and    second code executable in the processor for using data in the database to associate client requests to the set of content servers according to a given policy;    third code executable in the processor to provide a given suite of reports selected from a set of reports that include performance and status of the controller, network health statistics, network traffic statistics, and routing decisions;    fourth code executable in the processor to configure the given suite of tests and the given suite of reports; and    communications infrastructure to integrate into a unified enterprise network the controller and the given set of content servers.    
     
     
         2 . The controller as described in  claim 1  further including fifth code executable in the processor to provide a given content management control function selected from a set of functions that include provisioning content for delivery from the set of content servers, pre-populating content to the set of content servers, purging content from the set of content servers, and providing content freshness data to the set of content servers.  
     
     
         3 . The controller as described in  claim 1  wherein the second code implements a policy engine that associates a given client request with a given one of the set of content servers according to the given policy.  
     
     
         4 . The controller as described in  claim 3  wherein second code includes a metafile server that provides the association via a metafile.  
     
     
         5 . The controller as described in  claim 3  wherein the second code includes a name server that provides a DNS-based mapping of a given client request to a given content server.  
     
     
         6 . The controller as described in  claim 1  wherein the second code executable in a processor includes a metafile generator, and a policy engine, wherein a given request for content is executed against the policy engine to identify a given content server, and the metafile generator generates a metafile that include data identifying the given content server.  
     
     
         7 . The controller as described in  claim 6  wherein the policy engine includes code for determining whether the given request can be fulfilled due to bandwidth constraints, and wherein the metafile generator includes code responsive to the determination for generating a metafile identifying a lower bitrate version of the content.  
     
     
         8 . The controller as described in  claim 1  wherein the first code includes a test tool for identifying a test stream, for retrieving and rendering the test stream, and for reporting status data.  
     
     
         9 . A content delivery system for use in an enterprise behind an enterprise firewall, comprising: 
 a set of content servers; and    a controller; comprising: 
 first code executable in a processor to perform a given suite of tests;  
 a database for storing configuration data, and data generated from the given suite of tests;  
 second code executable in the processor for using data in the database to associate client requests to the set of content servers according to a given policy; and  
 communications infrastructure to integrate into a unified enterprise network the controller and the set of content servers.  
   
     
     
         10 . The content delivery system as described in  claim 9  wherein a given content server provides HTTP object delivery, streaming media delivery, or both HTTP object delivery and streaming delivery.  
     
     
         11 . The content delivery system as described in  claim 10  wherein the given content server includes a first agent that monitors content served from the content server, a second agent that monitors the health of the content server and a network to which the server is connected, and a third agent that aggregates and reports to the controller load and health data to facilitate integration of the content server into the unified enterprise network..  
     
     
         12 . The content delivery system as described in  claim 9  wherein the controller further includes: 
 third code executable in the processor to provide a given suite of reports; and  
 fourth code executable in the processor to configure the given suite of tests and the given suite of reports.  
 
     
     
         13 . A content delivery system for use in an enterprise behind a firewall, comprising: 
 a controller located at a first location and comprising code executable in a processor to provide a policy-based content server selection function based on a given criteria selected from a set of criteria including: location of a requesting client machine, content being requested, asynchronous data from periodic measurements of an enterprise network and state of given content servers, and a given capacity reservation; and    a set of content servers, wherein a given content server is located at a second, location remote from the first location and delivers content to a requesting end user machine that has been mapped to the content server by the controller.    
     
     
         14 . The content delivery system as described in  claim 13  wherein the set of content servers includes a subset of servers located on a network that supports multicasting.